It was a brazen, surgical hit

It was a brazen 20-minute hit on a National Highway, near Rajokri southwest Delhi in surgically executed by three seemingly 'professional killers' among more than a dozen witnesses without fear. Jatin Anand reports.

It was a brazen 20-minute hit on a National Highway, near Rajokri southwest Delhi in surgically executed by three seemingly 'professional killers' among more than a dozen witnesses without fear.

Deepak Bhardwaj's assailants, police sources said quoting eyewitness accounts, had simply walked up to him during his early morning stroll and pumped a bullet into his chest when he tried to defend himself. They finished the job by a surgical shot to the temple.

"There was apparently not much of an exchange of words between the assailants and Bhardwaj," said an officer investigating the case.

"The men simply walked up to him, asked him whether he was Deepak Bhardwaj and pulled the trigger on him."

According to sources, between a dozen and 18 of Bhardwaj's employees were present in the vicinity of the farmhouse when the incident took place.

One of them told police that Bhardwaj used to take his stroll around 7 am and had, due to some reason, got delayed by around an hour on the morning of his killing.

"As the two men with the guns made their way to Bhardwaj, their accomplice who was driving the grey Skoda car reversed it with its front towards the same gate they had used to enter from - gate number two," said an officer.

"Usually, another gate next to the one used as the entry point serves as the exit. But the assailants didn't know that and, according to their plan, ran to this gate after the car driver accelerated towards it as soon as shots were fired," the officer said.

According to Harmeet Singh, a relative, Bhardwaj had moved to the farmhouse around eight years ago. It was his fourth place of residence after Janakpuri, Anand Niketan and Vasant Vihar.

"He was very loyal to the people of the west Delhi constituency from where he contested the 2009 Lok Sabha elections," Singh said.

"So much so, that despite having lost, people still came to him for solutions to his problems."

Satprakash Rana, the BJP MLA from Bijwasan, said, "He was a good leader and a friend. The last I had seen him was at the marriage of the daughter of the local councillor. This incident must have been triggered by professional rivalry. He had no enemies among his people."